A hunter/jumper barn in Virginia is starting a long recovery process, bolstered by friends and neighbors, after a Sunday fire killed four horses and destroyed a 19-stall barn and the barn operations manager’s home.

That manager, Eliseo Huinac Larios, lived in a camper behind the barn at Memory’s Hill Stables in Waynesboro, Virginia, and reported the fire about 1 a.m. 

“Eliseo was awakened in his camper because, when the fire started, the breakers tripped, and that woke him up,” barn owner Ashley Holsinger said. “He could see the reflection of light in the window of his camper; he saw that the fire was starting.”

Larios called 911 and immediately set to work getting horses out of the three-aisle barn, opening stall doors and chasing the horses outdoors, Holsinger said, while also calling another person living on the farm, assistant trainer Tara Deckel, for help. The barn had 17 horses in it—more than it typically would—because of storms moving through the area that night.

“We turn out round-the-clock here, but of course on this one night when it was pouring rain, we hadn’t,” Holsinger said.

Larios was able to free all the horses except one, who was scared and refused to leave his stall in the barn’s middle aisle, Holsinger said. He kept trying to get the horse out until the barn roof began to collapse, and then knew he had to leave for his own survival.

Holsinger was in Ocala, Florida, with a group of horses and clients showing at the World Equestrian Center at the time of the fire. She learned about it when Deckel called her from the scene, as Larios was trying to get the last horse out, and took the first flight home the next morning.

Crews from multiple fire departments responded to put out the blaze, which ultimately destroyed the barn, camper and farm equipment including a tractor, truck and golf cart. As the firefighters worked, Deckel and nearby friends who Holsinger had called to help began rounding up the loose horses in the dark and heavy rain. They were able to find all but three, who they thought might have gone down the driveway and off the property, so they began searching the broader area, Holsinger said.

Once firefighters put out the fire, they reported finding the bodies of the three additional horses, who Holsinger said apparently ran back into the outside barn aisles, unbeknownst to Larios, while he was trying to get the final horse in the middle aisle to safety.

Holsinger arrived home to the fire scene later that morning, and a veterinarian came out to check the other horses on the farm. None had burns or physical injuries, but two who ran into a field directly behind the barn ended up going to Marion duPont Scott Equine Medical Center to be treated for smoke inhalation, where veterinarians told Holsinger their prognosis is good.

While clean-up on the farm begins, Holsinger is rotating horses through another 16-stall barn on the property to keep all of them comfortable, and friends and acquaintances have pitched in to help with short-term stabling and many other needs. Some set up a meal train, so the farm is stocked with food while Holsinger and her team begin cleaning up and starting over.

“The outpouring of support from the community to our tragedy has been incredible,” Holsinger said. “Fellow trainers, clients, people I randomly know reached out put a GoFundMe together to help us. So many expenses have come up, so many things you don’t expect to have happen. I really didn’t want my clients to have the burden of financial responsibility for their horses who perished in this barn fire. My first priority is taking care of my team, second is the horses, third is my clients; I have an incredible group of people who ride here. At that end of the day, it’s my rodeo, and I wanted to be responsible for all that.”

Holsinger plans to use some of the money raised to have the horses who perished cremated for their owners, and then to establish some type of memorials to them when the farm is rebuilt.

After Larios’ camper was destroyed, people pitched in to replace his clothes and other belongings, and he’s living in Holsinger’s house for now. However, she and her husband, Yarrow Roach, who is a contractor, also plan to use some of the GoFundMe fundraiser proceeds to replace Larios’ camper by building a “tiny house” on the farm so he has a permanent home with them.

The fire marshal’s report on the incident lists the fire’s cause as undetermined, Holsinger said.

“We’re very saddened by the loss, and we have a lot of grief, but there’s a tremendous amount of gratitude for what we still have: the horses who survived and the community,” she said.

People have donated more than $75,000 through GoFundMe, and Holsinger said she and her barn family are so appreciative of the donations. Emotionally, though, the messages they’ve received are what is keeping her team going in the face of the daunting clean-up and rebuilding process. Memory’s Hill has a community of former and current students and boarders, but also a broader reach through the 13 years of schooling shows and other events hosted at the barn through the Southwest Virginia Hunter Jumper Association, where Holsinger serves as vice president. Holsinger hopes to continue hosting the shows next summer, buoyed in part by people who have shared their happy stories of times spent at Memory’s Hill.

“The thing that has really touched all of us … is so many people have posted threads about what the farm means to them, so many memories they have here, how special of a place it is,” she said. “That’s the thing that’s really at the forefront for me: The love and support—people have really reminded me how special it is, and what this place means to them. That’s a huge driving force in what’s keeping us moving forward, more than the money.”